Rejuvenated lakes & ponds drown irrigation worries, recharge groundwater

Pune: Some rejuvenated rainwater-dependent water bodies in the state have replenished groundwater, turning around people’s lives, experts from Centre for Science and Environment said.The centre’s nationwide survey is documented in a book called ‘Back from the brink: Rejuvenating India’s lakes, ponds and tanks—A compendium of success stories’. It looked at 250 lakes, ponds and tanks rejuvenated by central and state govt schemes to know what works so that the best features can become guidelines for future projects. The book was released on June 26.

More than 13 lakes and tanks were analysed in urban and rural areas of Pune, Thane and Nanded for the survey.“Lakes and ponds are best for harvesting rain. They help in groundwater recharge. We get a huge amount of rainfall in a small period of time and the best way to catch the rain is to allow it to flow towards lakes and ponds to avoid waterlogging and conserve water for scarcity periods. In urban areas there is an immediate need to protect and rejuvenate the water bodies to absorb the extreme storm events,” CSE’s Sushmita Sengupta, senior programme manager (water), said.Maharashtra has many water bodies under conservation schemes, and the involvement of different stakeholders made a difference in state-level projects.The survey’s findings spoke of two minor irrigation tanks in Shirur and Maval under Mission Amrit Sarovar, started by the central government in 2022. They were dug after a demand from the local people to store water for irrigation. Both tanks now hold 24.47 thousand cubic metres (TCM) of water irrigating 10 hectares and 1,447.71 TCM for 174 hectares respectively with groundwater recharge downstream.“Depleting groundwater and decreased yield from borewells are common. Farmers struggle to produce crops and need irrigation. In each case, the tank improved groundwater levels, increased irrigation and crop yield, via rainwater catchment,” Sengupta added.Sagroli’s pond in Nanded district was desilted by removing 11,000 cubic metre of silt by Nanded-based NGO Sanskriti Samvardhan Mandal and the department of soil and water conservation to increase groundwater levels under the state’s Gaalmukt Dharan Gaalyukt Shivar scheme. When the pond began to store rainwater, the borewells near the pond were recharged and groundwater increased by more than 100m.However, success stories have only been limited to rural areas, surveyors said. In urban areas, only a few lakes were found to be rejuvenating under AMRUT 2.0 and Smart City projects. A few urban water bodies, although completed in all respects, did not have any enough data to justify their impacts or sustainability.Sengupta said rural districts are far ahead with their rejuvenation programmes and urban areas need to fix the rainwater channels and catchments. “Only working on water bodies will not work. A plan to monitor and maintain should be in place. Restoration of catchment, rainwater channels and water bodies in an integrated manner through a survey is a must before rejuvenation,” she added.
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.